Tag Archives: ATM

Day 8: Adios Las Cuevas!

May 23, 2025

Travel Day! LCRS —> Tropical Education Center (TEC)
We woke up bright and early to clear out of the LCRS. WOW, how the time flew! It really feels like just yesterday we were driving into LCRS for the first time. I was sad to leave, but definitely excited for what was in store! What was that, you ask? A full tour of the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave!
Our tour guide, Rafael, was so great! He told us about how the Maya people used the ATM cave, and then took us into it to show us the ruins. Among them, skeletons from Maya human sacrifice. It was very interesting to hear how much every detail of the cave meant to them, as a representation of the Maya underworld. The placement of their firepits, for example, was designed so that shadows of certain figures resembled their god of rain’s wife, so to them that represented her presence in the cave and her availability to be a conduit for them to pray for rain as well. Overall, this cave was so cool to see and swim through, and we had such a great day.
After that, went to the TEC, settled in, and then went on a night tour of the Belize Zoo. I loved to see all the nocturnal animals, but I also loved to see how the Belize Zoo was dedicated to wildlife conservation. The only animals they had were kept from the wild either because they were orphaned and raised by humans (and therefore could not survive on their own in the wild) or if they were medically unable to return to the wild, like the Jaguar Martin, who lost his eye due to glaucoma. And, as always, it would not be a Sam blog post without an ant mention! Back at the TEC, I saw a cute “Leafcutter Ant Crossing” sign that was displayed over one of the leafcutter’s highways. I loved it!
Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to an awesome boat ride to the beautiful Glover’s Reef Research Station (GRRS) 80 miles off the coast of Belize City in the Caribbean Sea!
<3,
Sam
Images
ATM Cave Welcome Sign
ATM Cave Skeleton (formerly known as Crystal Maiden, no longer certain of gender so this name is out of style) (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-crystal-maiden-of-the-actun-tunichil-muknal-cave-belize)
Belize Zoo Sign  (picture from Lily Hestjean)
Jaguar at Belize Zoo (bad picture, sorry!)
Leafcutter ant crossing sign

Cold and Fruity (Day 9)

Dear Adrienne,

Today we went to Actun Tunichil Muknal archeological reserve. Here we hiked into a cave that was used for Mayan sacrifices and has lots of well-preserved artifacts and human remains. I did not see any Orthoptera.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside of the cave, but here’s a picture of the sign!

To get to where the artifacts and remains were, we had to swim and scramble our way through the cave. The guide said I had to wear the top I had been carrying out of respect to the ancient Mayans, so it was real frigid being in the cave because the rivers were so cold and my clothes were so wet.

Nevertheless, it was crazy to be inside of such a sacred place, especially since we could see the vessels and victims of sacrifices all around us and knew that only the most elite Mayans would ever enter the cave. As neat and memorable as it was, I kind of felt like it was inappropriate for us tourists to be climbing around in there, given the religious significance the cave has.

Maneuvering through the cave was pretty complicated because it involved a lot of climbing up tall structures and fitting our heads through small cracks. At some point when we were climbing, Deepu scraped his leg and bled some. When we were in the cave, our guide taught us about bloodletting, a process in which people would slit themselves with obsidian blades or stingray barbs and offer their own blood to the Gods, so we were joking about how Deepu was partaking in bloodletting. It was really eerie when we emerged from the cave to see that it had just started to pour as if Deepu’s sacrifice to Chaac, the rain God, had worked.

After we left the cave, we drove to Crystal Paradise Resort where we are spending tonight before going on to Las Cuevas. On the way we stopped in the town of San Ignacio. There I bought a bag of grapes and tried a baby banana. Also, I made Therese go ask a man with a produce stand if we could have some of the oranges that had fallen out of his truck. I think he took pity on us because he just gave her two fresh ones. These are some of the advantages of having a TA.

The towel swan at Crystal Paradise: They really treated us well!